ICICI Bank rating unchanged following tap bond offer: Moody’s

Moody’s Investors Service said ICICI Bank’s credit rating for an existing unsecured note remains unchanged at Baa2 following the announcement of a tap bond offering.ICICI Bank has announced a $250 million tap bond offering, which has the same terms as the existing $750 million 4.7% 2018 senior unsecured notes. The unsecured notes were issued through the Dubai branch as part of $5 billion medium-term note programme.The outlook on the ratings remains stable, Moody’s Investors Services said. Tap bonds defined Tap issue is a procedure that allows...

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SBI Life launches ‘smart income protect’ plan

SBI Life Insurance today launched a traditional savings plan that offers tax-free regular income at guaranteed rate of returns.This regular income will be at a rate of 11 per cent of the sum assured or paid sum assured for the next 15 years, after maturity, the company said in a statement.Catering to the risk-averse investors, ‘smart income protect’ offers life insurance cover, lumpsum benefit at maturity and regular guaranteed payouts for 15 years, after maturity, the statement said.SBI Life’s smart income protect caters to future needs like...

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Oriental Bank raises Rs 1,025 cr tier-II capital

Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has raised Rs 1,025 crore of capital through lower tier-II bonds to fund its business growth.These bonds carry a coupon of 8.93 per cent a year and have tenure of 10 years.Confirming the completion of the capital raising through the bond offering, V. Kannan, Executive Director, OBC, said this would help the bank conform to the Basel-III requirements. These bonds were rated AA+ by both CARE and ICRA.The bank is looking at a capital adequacy ratio of over 12 per cent at end-March 2013. The Basel-III capital adequacy...

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HDFC Bank: 87 rural branches opened in Punjab, Haryana

HDFC Bank on Sunday said it has opened as many 87 branches, mostly in rural areas of Punjab and Haryana in one single-day.The country’s second largest private-sector bank also launched an exclusive ‘Bharat Credit Card’ for farmers in both the states.Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal inaugurated 51 branches in the state, while the 36 branches in Haryana were launched by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the bank said in a statement.The rural push is part of the bank’s board mandate to bring 10 million unbanked families into the banking...

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Allow banks to buy back gold coins: SBI chief

Banks should be allowed to buy back the gold coins they sell to their individual customers, according to State Bank of India Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri.Pointing out that there is good demand for gold coins, the SBI chief said permitting banks to buy back will create liquidity in the precious metal, thereby easing pressure on the import front.The current RBI guidelines do not permit buy back of gold coins/bars by banks. In a study on India’s gold rush, industry body Assocham said the country imports most of its gold requirement, accounting for...

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SBI donates bus to Lakshya Sadhana

As part of its community service banking, State Bank of India has donated a Tata winger mini-bus to Lakshya Sadhana society for the mentally challenged here. The Chief General Manager of the bank, Rakesh Sharma, while donating it, said the Hyderabad circle of the bank is lending a helping hand to the needy. Recently, a minibus and hearing aids were donated to ‘Ashray-Akruti,’ an institution taking care of the hearing impaired. In the last financial year, SBI spent Rs 4 crore under corporate social responsibility activities. The circle has 1,300...

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